Tag - censorship

 
 

CENSORSHIP

Pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow is released in June 2021, after serving nearly seven months in prison for her role in Hong Kong's 2019 anti-government protests.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 4, 2023
Prominent Hong Kong activist Agnes Chow flees to Canada
Chow, who was jailed for months in a crackdown on pro-democracy activists, cited her physical and mental health as reasons for not returning to the city.
Dang Dinh Bach ran a law and sustainable development policy research center that provided legal aid before he was arrested for tax evasion in Vietnam in 2021. Bach refused to plead guilty and his wife says he has been assaulted in prison by police officers.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 29, 2023
Why Vietnam jailed the environmentalists it used to secure billions
The government has arrested several prominent environmentalists from organizations that shaped policies that helped secure funding.
Protests in Shinjuku, Tokyo, last November, echoed demonstrations in several major Chinese cities that called for an end to Chinese President Xi Jinping's draconian “zero-COVID” policy.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 28, 2023
Chinese intellectuals increasingly attracted to Tokyo
An increase in anti-Asian hate crimes in the U.S. following the COVID-19 pandemic has driven some graduates to Japan.
A man sings for customers touring the Erhai lake on a sightseeing bus in Dali, in China's Yunnan province.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Nov 27, 2023
Chasing a different dream, China's tech nomads head for the hills
In the mountain town of Dali, former city-dwellers in search of a space for open discussion and exchange of ideas in authoritarian China find refuge.
Kashmiri journalists protest against internet blockade put by India's government in Srinagar in October 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 24, 2023
Internet out: India deploys shutdowns in name of security
Some blackouts last hours, others days. Some stretch for months.
New Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (left) and and his predecessor, Wen Jiabao (center), attend the 12th National People's Congress where Chinese President Xi Jinping was first elected in Beijing in March 2013.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2023
China's opaque politics and the Li Keqiang mystery
Li reportedly had bypass surgery and was taking drugs after a liver transplant, both of which would have increased the risk of a heart attack.
Journalists and activists call for justice and protection of media workers during a rally following the killing of a radio journalist in Quezon City, Philippines, in October 2022.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Nov 5, 2023
Radio broadcaster killed in the Philippines
The Philippines is one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists, and their killers often go unpunished.
English and Italian footballers observe a minute of silence for the victims of a deadly shooting in Brussels and of the devastating events in Israel and Palestine, at Wembley Stadium in London on Oct. 17.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 24, 2023
Qatar-owned network altered broadcasts to avoid war references
Instead of tributes and moments of silence at recent games, beIN broadcasts aired extended studio discussions that hewed solely toward soccer.
West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts, in Hong Kong. A man in Hong Kong was sentenced to jail for importing children's books that portrayed the city's democracy supporters as sheep defending their village from wolves.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 6, 2023
Hong Kong man jailed for importing 'seditious' children's books
Beijing has revived a colonial-era sedition offense to jail dozens of residents, which critics have decried as political suppression.
Demonstrators hold signs during a protest against COVID-19 measures Munich in 2022.
WORLD / Society
Oct 4, 2023
AI 'supercharges' online disinformation and censorship, report warns
Internet freedom declined for the 13th straight year, with China, Myanmar and Iran having the worst conditions of the 70 countries surveyed.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Press freedom in India has plummeted since Modi came to power in 2014, rights activists and opposition lawmakers say, with Reporters Without Borders warning that such freedom is "in crisis" in the country.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 4, 2023
Indian police launch sweeping raids on journalists, arresting two
Police said the raids were carried out under a stringent anti-terror law that makes it virtually impossible to get bail.
Paramilitary personnel at a security checkpoint ahead of the G20 summit in New Delhi on Sept. 8.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 3, 2023
Indian police launch raids on journalists and activists
Those raided are reported to be connected to the English-language news website NewsClick.
Central to China’s global media campaign is the aggressive use of new technologies to target and spread messages, silence critics and create a digital infrastructure that is more easily controlled.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2023
Pushing back against China’s media offensive
China is using propaganda, disinformation, censorship and covert tactics to promote its preferred narrative and suppress critical reporting.
Sebastien Lai, son of Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, holds a sign calling for the release of his father, on the sidelines of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Sep 28, 2023
Son of jailed tycoon says it's in Hong Kong's interest to free him
Jimmy Lai is the founder of now shut pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and a prominent critic of China's Communist Party.
Anon Numpa, a prominent activist and former human rights lawyer, speaks to media ahead of a Thai criminal court's verdict in a case of him allegedly having insulted the monarchy, at the criminal court in Bangkok on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Sep 27, 2023
Top Thai protest leader jailed on royal insult charges
Thailand has some of the world's strictest royal defamation laws, which shield King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his close family from criticism.
Journalist and #MeToo advocate Sophia Huang Xueqin and labor activist Wang Jianbing were arrested on Sept. 19, 2021, but their trial in the southern city of Guangzhou was only due to begin on Friday, according to supporters.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Sep 24, 2023
Chinese activist pair indicted for state subversion, supporters say
Journalist and #MeToo advocate Sophia Huang Xueqin and labor activist Wang Jianbing were arrested on Sept. 19, 2021.
Twitter owner Elon Musk attends the Viva Technology conference in Paris in June.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 3, 2023
X community notes: Weapon against fake news or free speech?
Despite being touted by Elon Musk as the way to police Twitter, experts remain unimpressed, citing opportunities for abuse.
Chinese tech giant Baidu's ERNIE Bot is seen on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Sep 2, 2023
'Talk about something else': Chinese AI chatbot toes party line
Chinese tech giant Baidu's ERNIE Bot is highly censored, offering state-approved answers to taboo questions.
Kim Hau's tea shop was raided by police in February 2022, when she was arrested for sedition.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Aug 24, 2023
Ordinary Hong Kongers convicted under colonial-era sedition law
Authorities in Hong Kong are using the law to punish any kind of criticism or dissent, even coming from ordinary citizens rather than activists.
Chinese national flags fly over Tiananmen Square along with other red flags ahead of the fifth plenary session of the First Session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 12.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 16, 2023
China is hiding more and more data from the rest of the world
China’s abrupt decision to pause releasing data on its soaring youth jobless rate this week was the latest sign the Asian giant is increasingly restricting sensitive information - especially when it’s unflattering to the nation’s faltering economy.

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’